“You Look at an Ocean; I See the Rips, Hear the Waves, and Feel the Currents”: Dwelling and the Growth of Enskiled Inhabitant Knowledge

Abstract

This inquiry explores a theoretical question, of applied practical relevance in fields like sport science, relating to how people come to know the performance landscapes they inhabit, and the dynamic opportunities for action they present. Here, we propose that how people come to know their performance landscapes, and how they learn to correspond with available affordances in them, is through dwelling. More specifically, through dwelling, people learn to resonate with the rhythms of information and affordances of a performance landscape, entangling with them to successfully find their way through the tasks, problems and challenges taken up with. To theoretically support our analysis, we draw on James Gibson’s different conceptualisations of knowledge, and Tim Ingold’s perspectives of enskilment – bringing practical applicability to our discussion by weaving in various ethnographic accounts of the growth of enskiled inhabitant knowledge. Through these transdisciplinary insights, we show that it is by asking questions, sharing stories, and following up lines of inquiry that people grow into their enskiled knowledge of places they inhabit.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank their friends and colleagues, particularly James Rudd, for their thoughts on an earlier version of this manuscript. We would also like to thank both Reviewers and the Associate Editor for their critical suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Funding

None was sought or received in the completion of this inquiry.

Notes

1 As an aside, we nudge interested readers toward the comics of Nick Sousanis (2015) in his book, Unflattening, which offer wonderful insight to this sentiment – particularly the comics in chapter one, Flatness.

2 As stated by Heft (2013), it is important to acknowledge the roots of an ecological approach to psychology from William James (1890). Indeed, E.B. Holt, James Gibson’s mentor, was a student of William James (Heft, 2001). As with many other advances in philosophy and science, innovators need to ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’.

3 While beyond the scope of this report, it is important to acknowledge the debate in the literature regarding the selectionist (e.g. Reed, 1996a) or dispositional (e.g. Turvey, 1992) account of affordances. Further, there is disagreement on their animal-relevant properties – viewed as effectivities (an animal’s ability to actualise an affordance – e.g. Shaw et al., 1982) or body-scale (e.g. Heft, 1989; Warren, 1984). For further critique and a unique perspective, see Chemero (2003).

4 In an open, inhabited and risky world, ‘attend’ can be understood through an etymology of ad-tendere; roughly meaning ‘to stretch toward’. It can also be understood through a French interpretation of attendre; roughly meaning ‘to wait’ (see Ingold, 2018; Masschelein, 2010).

5 For a deeper insight into what a softer pedagogy may be, interested readers could consult the work of Rudd et al. (2021) and Woods et al. (2021).

6 In the book, Wayfinding: The science and mystery of how humans navigate the world, M.R. O’Connor (2018) offers a brilliant account of this. While with Indigenous people of Northern Australia, she recalls looking upon a landscape, and seeing “trees, grass, and dirt bleached by heat and sun”. Conversely, the indigenous elder she was with at the time saw the same landscape “teeming with history, food, medicine, shelter, tools, and stories.” (p. 192). Note the concurrent interpretation of ‘landscape’ – the former, land-looked-at; the latter, land-being-shaped.

7 For a detailed conceptualisation of wayfinding beyond navigational connotations, we nudge readers toward the work of Woods et al. (2020b).

8 This sentiment was echoed by Aporta and Higgs (2005) in their exceptional ethnography of Inuit wayfinding: “This was evident in our observations of GPS use in the Igloolik region. Some inexperienced hunters and travellers who depended heavily on the technology suffered from the fallibility of all sophisticated technology in unforgiving environments […] Knowledge of the land- and seascape remained a crucial survival skill.” (p. 745, our emphasis)